Tag Archives: Marriage

Obama administration replaces mother/father with parent 1/2 on passport application

Story from Fox News. (H/T Dad and Mary)

Excerpt:

The words “mother” and “father” will be removed from U.S. passport applications and replaced with gender neutral terminology, the State Department says.

“The words in the old form were ‘mother’ and ‘father,’” said Brenda Sprague, deputy assistant Secretary of State for Passport Services. “They are now ‘parent one’ and ‘parent two.’”

A statement on the State Department website noted: “These improvements are being made to provide a gender neutral description of a child’s parents and in recognition of different types of families.” The statement didn’t note if it was for child applications only.

[…]Gay rights groups are applauding the decision.

“Changing the term mother and father to the more global term of parent allows many different types of families to be able to go and apply for a passport for their child without feeling like the government doesn’t recognize their family,” said Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of Family Equality Council.

Her organization lobbied the government for several years to remove the words from passport applications.

“Our government needs to recognize that the family structure is changing,” Chrisler said. “The best thing that we can do is support people who are raising kids in loving, stable families.”

[…]Chrisler recounted the day she and her female partner tried to get her twin sons passports.

“Even though my partner was their legal mother, had adopted them after I gave birth to them, she still had to put her name in the father field, and that is both discriminatory and makes us feel like second-class citizens,” she said.

Democrats don’t believe in family or marriage. That’s why they push same-sex marriage and oppose the Defense of Marriage Act. They don’t believe that children should grow up with mothers and fathers. They believe that children are chattel to be shifted around based on the whims of selfish, sex-obsessed adults. They don’t care what the children want or what is best for them – they just need to buy the votes of people who want to be free from moral obligations to children. They think that parents should be ignored and pushed aside (except to work and pay taxes) so that the expert teachers can push sensible secular leftist views onto the children – especially sex education. And they would like this extended to earlier and earlier ages. That is assuming that children are allowed to be born at all – the abortion rate in Democrat strongholds like New York is near 40%. About 40% of all pregnancies in New York end in deliberate abortions.

Why is the family disintegrating in America? Because Democrats are actively undermining them.

New study finds that eating dinner as a family makes children happier

From the left-wing UK Guardian. (H/T Mercator via RuthBlog)

Excerpt:

Researchers at the National Foundation for Educational Research asked the English pupils, aged between 10 and 15, whether they agreed, disagreed or were unsure about the statement: “I feel happy about life at the moment.”

[…]The research, Reasons to be Cheerful: Being a 12-year-old Boy who Eats Dinner with his Family, which was commissioned by the Department for Education, also found that boys were 1.4 times more likely to say they felt happy than girls.

[…]Children who often eat a meal with family or friends at home and regularly eat fruit and vegetables are also more likely to say they are happy. The study found young people who often sit down for a meal with their family are 1.6 times more likely to state that they are happy as those who sometimes or never sit down to a meal with their family. The most likely reason for children to say they are unhappy is being worried about their parents or family, the researchers found. A high proportion of those who worried about their looks also said they were unhappy.

The happiest group were 12-year-old boys who eat with their families.

[…]Benton said: “Our analysis confirms that If we are interested in the happiness and wellbeing of young people we need to look beyond how much money they have.

“In particular, growing up in a supportive and safe environment, both within the home and elsewhere appear to be far more important. Parents making the effort to spend time with their children are a major positive influence on their chances of being happy.”

This sort of contradicts the left’s way of addressing children’s issues – which is to weaken the parental bond through taxation and government-run social programs. Maybe we should lower taxes and let parents have more of their own earned income to pump into their own families directly on things like family dinners and family activities?

Are the new Tea Party Republicans any better than the old liberal ones?

Gateway Pundit found this statement by House Majority Leader John Boehner. He’s telling Obama that he can’t have the credit card until he starts paying his bills.

Excerpt:

Washington (Jan 6) House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) issued the following statement on the debt limit:

“I’ve been notified that the Obama Administration intends to formally request an increase in the debt limit. The American people will not stand for such an increase unless it is accompanied by meaningful action by the President and Congress to cut spending and end the job-killing spending binge in Washington. While America cannot default on its debt, we also cannot continue to borrow recklessly, dig ourselves deeper into this hole, and mortgage the future of our children and grandchildren. Spending cuts – and reforming a broken budget process – are top priorities for the American people and for the new majority in the House this year, and it is essential that the President and Democrats in Congress work with us in that effort.”

So he’s serious about cutting the spending. I saw him taking questions from reporters and he certainly seemed determined to keep his promises. That’s all he was telling the reporters – about how he was going to keep his promises that got the Republicans elected.

Oh, and Gateway Pundit found this story, about how the Republicans are going to fire all of Obama’s 39 czars.

Excerpt:

A group of House Republicans introduced a bill on Wednesday to rein in the various “czars” in the Obama administration.

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and 28 other House Republicans introduced legislation to do away with the informal, paid advisers President Obama has employed over the past two years.

The legislation, which was introduced in the last Congress but was not allowed to advance under Democratic control, would do away with the 39 czars Obama has employed during his administration.

The bill defines a czar as “a head of any task force, council, policy office within the Executive Office of the President, or similar office established by or at the direction of the President” who is appointed to a position that would otherwise require Senate confirmation.

According to Life Site News, John Boehner is quite the social conservative.

Excerpt:

Today marked the swearing in of what some, including pro-life Representative Chris Smith, have labeled the “most pro-life” congress in living memory, and possibly even in history.

Ninety-four new House members were sworn in, as well as 13 new senators. Republicans now hold a 242-193 majority in the House, while Democrats hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate.

Besides the overall shift from Democrat to Republican majority in the House, one of the more dramatic changes is the replacement of Nancy Pelosi, a radical abortion supporter, with the staunch pro-life advocate Rep. John Boehner as Speaker of the House.

Boehner has a long pro-life history, enjoying a 0% pro-choice voting record from the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) and a 100% pro-life voting record from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC).

Americans United for Life President and CEO Charmaine Yoest today welcomed the new Congress, saying in a statement: “I predict that we will see changes in President Obama’s pro-abortion health care plan and in other pro-life measures as a result of pro-life leadership taking their places in Washington, D.C. today.”

In his opening speech to the House Boehner promised that that the Republican majority would honor their “Pledge to America,” a document outlining the GOP’s agenda that included a section pledging to eliminate federal funding of abortion. The preamble of the “Pledge” states, “We pledge to honor families, traditional marriage, life, and the private and faith-based organizations that form the core of our American values.”

Ladies and gentlemen, the new Republican party.